Sarah Helen Whitman (1803-1878)

Sarah Helen Power Whitman was a respected and talented poet. She began corresponding with Edgar Allen Poe in February, 1848. Poe proposed to Whitman in a cemetery and they became engaged. But because of Poe's chronic drinking, and because she suspected Poe's interest in her was chiefly financial, Whitman canceled the wedding at the last moment. Her collected poems, "Hours of Life," appeared in 1853.